A Fresh Look at the 512 As an Upstart Moves In

Austin musician Gerald G, also known as Mr. 512, is cool with the new area code about to drop.

Marisssa Bartnett for KUT News

Starting tomorrow, you’ll need to dial ten or dial again. Austin is getting a new area code, 737, and from now on, everyone needs to dial all 10 digits of a local number, area code included.

For many, Austin’s 512 area code is so much more than a prefix.

“The first area codes had a zero in the middle, like 202, 703 -- East Coast numbers,” said Donna Nelson with the state Public Utility Commission, the agency that decides how and when to introduce new area codes. “And then the middle numbers had a 1, like 512.”

The reason why lies in the past. You probably haven’t seen a rotary phone in a while, maybe even ever, but they’re a big reason area codes are like they are. Bigger cities like New York, Chicago and L.A. had a 1 for a middle number, which took fewer clicks to dial. Zeroes were reserved for less populated areas, and entire states.

“And then, as we made it past the zeros and ones, the numbers were just generated randomly,” Nelson said.

While the numbers may seem random, their deployment isn’t. Joe Cocke, a senior area code relief planner for the North American Numbering Plan Administration, says there’s a science to selecting a new area code, especially if it will be alongside an existing one.

“It should not be an area code that is similar to an adjacent area code,” Cocke said. “And so we try to look at prefixes that are not in use.”

But area codes are more than three numbers -- for some people, a lot more.